Post by LawrenceCoBowhunter on Nov 13, 2006 13:31:33 GMT -5
And I thought I only had about 30 more years left in me lol
GALESBURG (AP) - Orville Paulson quit smoking two years ago at age 94. His deer hunting habit is proving harder to break.
Paulson, who turned 96 on Nov. 4, has been hooked on deer hunting since 1945, when he shot his first trophy buck.
Friday morning, more than six decades after shooting that first buck, Paulson was preparing for yet another deer season.
"If I get my deer, fine, and if I don't, that's fine, too," he said. "The social part of it is about half of it. There's nothing more fun than to go out, pack a lunch and have coffee two or three times."
North Dakota Game and Fish Department records show that Paulson is among the oldest hunters in the state.
"I knew I was going to keep on as long as I could," he said. "I don't see that good any more, but I get by."
Paulson said he is not sure how many deer he has shot over the years, but he has always enjoyed success.
When he was a child, he worked odd jobs and saved up enough money to buy a Model 97 Winchester shotgun and two boxes of shells from a neighbor for $25. He borrowed an old Model-T from a local shoemaker to drive to a slough.
"There were no deer around here at that time," he said. "We hunted a lot of pheasants. Prairie chickens. We used to have a bunch of pheasants around here. And we'd go duck hunting."
Paulson said he did not see deer in northeastern North Dakota until 1943. By the time Game and Fish offered a season in the eastern part of the state two years later, deer were more common, he said.
"There wasn't as many as now, but there were a lot of big, mature bucks because there hadn't been a season for a long time," he said.
Paulson's son, Bill, of Elbow Lake, Minn., now takes him hunting, as payback for all the years his dad spent teaching him the ropes.
"I remember tagging along in the late '40s, and I wasn't very big," Bill Paulson said. "There was always a group of guys that came to dad's deer hunting from Grand Forks and all over, and I got to go along. I got to carry the knife."
In 1957, the first year he could legally hunt, Bill Paulson shot his first deer. It is those traditions, he said, that make deer season such a special time.
"It goes right back to those stories," he said. "It's stuff we don't forget."
GALESBURG (AP) - Orville Paulson quit smoking two years ago at age 94. His deer hunting habit is proving harder to break.
Paulson, who turned 96 on Nov. 4, has been hooked on deer hunting since 1945, when he shot his first trophy buck.
Friday morning, more than six decades after shooting that first buck, Paulson was preparing for yet another deer season.
"If I get my deer, fine, and if I don't, that's fine, too," he said. "The social part of it is about half of it. There's nothing more fun than to go out, pack a lunch and have coffee two or three times."
North Dakota Game and Fish Department records show that Paulson is among the oldest hunters in the state.
"I knew I was going to keep on as long as I could," he said. "I don't see that good any more, but I get by."
Paulson said he is not sure how many deer he has shot over the years, but he has always enjoyed success.
When he was a child, he worked odd jobs and saved up enough money to buy a Model 97 Winchester shotgun and two boxes of shells from a neighbor for $25. He borrowed an old Model-T from a local shoemaker to drive to a slough.
"There were no deer around here at that time," he said. "We hunted a lot of pheasants. Prairie chickens. We used to have a bunch of pheasants around here. And we'd go duck hunting."
Paulson said he did not see deer in northeastern North Dakota until 1943. By the time Game and Fish offered a season in the eastern part of the state two years later, deer were more common, he said.
"There wasn't as many as now, but there were a lot of big, mature bucks because there hadn't been a season for a long time," he said.
Paulson's son, Bill, of Elbow Lake, Minn., now takes him hunting, as payback for all the years his dad spent teaching him the ropes.
"I remember tagging along in the late '40s, and I wasn't very big," Bill Paulson said. "There was always a group of guys that came to dad's deer hunting from Grand Forks and all over, and I got to go along. I got to carry the knife."
In 1957, the first year he could legally hunt, Bill Paulson shot his first deer. It is those traditions, he said, that make deer season such a special time.
"It goes right back to those stories," he said. "It's stuff we don't forget."
